Riverdale Food Hubs Step Up as Federal Aid Cuts Strain Local Families

Families across greater Riverdale are still feeling the strain of federal cuts to food aid programs made in March. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), responsible for nutrition assistance, paused $500 million in funding to the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) in March. TEFAP supports community kitchens, food pantries and other resources for low-income families. 

It also cut the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program in March, which would have funded $500 million towards food banks, according to Reuters. 

USDA funding flows through TEFAP — from which New York receives $30 million annually, according to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand — to regional food banks, which allocate resources to local pantries. Food pantries nationwide have reported a rise in demand and a shortage of resources. 

But, local community-driven groups stay committed to the neighborhood through food hubs. 

A food hub differs from a pantry. If TEFAP funds a pantry, often clients must share their name, address or household size. A hub is more informal. 

Two local community service groups — Friendly Fridge BX and Theory 9 — organized separate food hubs in late July. As routine distributors, either group noticed a rise in the number of clients. 

Heightened need is emphasized by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Trump on July 4. The legislation prompted concern over impending cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other social aid initiatives. 

Friendly Fridge was co-founded by married couple Selma Raven and Sara Allen. As the first community fridge in the Bronx, it recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Friendly Fridge partners with community members to redirect unused produce into the neighborhood. 

“We’re trying to normalize the idea that it’s not just people in need,” Allen said. “It’s mutual aid.”

Mutual aid refers to the collaboration of resources or services, prompted by economic uncertainty or other crises.

Riverdale-based Christina Rodriguez organizes a monthly clothes drive at the site, using items donated by the community. 

“You have some people who are homeless, and some people who are just going through difficult times,” Rodriguez said. “Food is more expensive, clothes are more expensive. Right now, we need to help each other.” 

A friend of Raven and Allen’s, Toto Feldman, is creating a children’s book about the food hub featuring characters as animals. Feldman and the cofounders want to remove the stigma around distribution and make it more inviting. 

Rosa Nazar, who lost her son Saul Nuñez in November last year, hands out numbered tickets to people in line waiting for food. 

“[Friendly Fridge] serves two things: It helps [clients] physically — with the food — but it also helps them mentally,” Nazar said. “It helped me deal with my pain. I don’t know the story of all of them, but I know people here have suffered worse than I did, and they fight alone all these years.”

Nazar also noted the sense of community the hub invites. She said that clients sit and converse with each other — they don’t have to stay there, but they do to socialize. 

“What we need in Riverdale is really just collaboration,” Raven said. “We are a mutual aid movement with no [government funding], and we are giving out almost 70,000 pounds of produce. Can you imagine if everyone collaborated?” 

Friendly Fridge’s food hub runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 2 p.m., at 4670 Manhattan College Parkway. Community fridges are open all other days of the week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

In Kingsbridge, Theory 9 , a nonprofit founded by Shakir Seagers and Izaiah Barrow four and a half years ago — operates a monthly food distribution site.  They often partner with retailers like Boost Mobile, a phone company, for pop-ups or giveaways. 

“Our stores are in low-income neighborhoods,” Ennio Rodas, Boost’s sales manager, said. “These are our customers, so we try to contribute as much as possible.” 

Barrow, a Kingsbridge native, said Theory 9 is about paying it forward to his community. 

“These people — they watched me grow up, I’m watching them grow up, we’re aging together,"
he said. "This is family." 

He also noted changes in the products Theory 9 has received from the New York Common Pantry, a partially government-funded food bank. Where there used to be real milk, now there is powdered milk, he said. 

Rosylin Burgos-Santos, a single mom with two kids, visits the food hub with her grandma when possible. 

“I have a full-time job, but what I make is not enough for food, and I don’t qualify for food stamps,” Burgos-Santos said. “I’m not at the poverty level, but I’m not rich. Sometimes we need this to make ends meet.”

Amanda Mahadeo and her five-year-old son, Amir, brought children’s toys to the food hub. 

“I need [Amir] to see the other side of the world, beyond the madness," Mahadeo said.  "I need him to see humanity,” 

She added there is a lack of federal resources for the community. 

“The government doesn’t really care about the little people in the community, and it’s always the little things that matter,” she said. 

Theory 9 distributes on the last Friday of every month at Marie Curie High School, 120 West 231st Street. 

“[There’s] a lot of big cuts, the line gets longer and longer,”  Burgo-Santos said. But, “community-wise, there’s more unity.”